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| Illustrations to Milton's Paradise Regained Baptism of Christ |
In the first illustration Blake presented the
Baptism of Jesus by his cousin John in the Jordan river. Here is
the account of the event in the book of Mark:
Mark.1
[1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God;
[2] As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before
thee.
[3] The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the
way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
[4] John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
[5] And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and
they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of
Jordan, confessing their sins.
[6] And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle
of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;
[7] And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I
after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down
and unloose.
[8] I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
[9] And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came
from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
[10] And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw
the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon
him:
[11] And there came a voice from heaven, saying,
Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
[12] And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the
wilderness.
In Paradise Regained Milton gives this account of the baptism of
Jesus
Paradise Regained
Book 1
[Jesus speaks]
"I as all others to his Baptism came,
Which I believ'd
was from above; but he
Strait knew me, and
with loudest voice proclaim'd [ 275 ]
Me him (for it was shew'n
him so from Heaven)
Me him whose Harbinger he was; and first
Refus'd on me his
Baptism to confer,
As much his greater, and was hardly won;
But as I rose out of the laving stream, [ 280 ]
Heaven open'd her eternal doors, from whence
The Spirit descended on me like a Dove,
And last the sum of all, my Father's voice,
Audibly heard from Heav'n,
pronounc'd
me his,
Me his beloved Son, in whom alone [ 285 ]
He was well pleas'd;
by which I knew the time
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
But openly begin, as best becomes
The Authority which I deriv'd
from Heaven."
Blake fills his illustration with detail from the Bible, from
Milton, and from his own myth of fall and redemption which he saw
repeated everywhere he looked. Blake used the symbols which recur
throughout his work, and in the body of esoteric thought with
which his mind was filled.
Jesus occupies the central position in the picture. There are
figures to the right of Jesus [our left] which are beneficent and
to the left which are sinister. John the Baptist, representing the
past, faces away from us. Jesus faces the viewer directly inviting
him to see Jesus 'thru' his spiritual eye, not 'with' his material
eye. Satan with his serpent is expelled from the scene but will
reappear when Jesus enters the wilderness. The spiritual nature of
Jesus is represented by the descent of the dove and the light
radiating from above. His physical nature is apparent as he stands
in water and has it poured upon his head.
Blake created twelve illustrations for Paradise Regained.
The information provided by the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge
where they are housed dates them between 1816 and 1818. They were
purchased from Blake by John Linnell in 1825. Like all of the
illustrations by Blake to Milton's work they were produced not for
publication but for private collectors. Blake delighted in
illustrating the work of his hero Milton. His illustrations are a
colloquy between himself and the author: he listens to what Milton
says and replies out of his own experience. The biblical authors
participate in the conversation as well.
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